A F MCKEE FOODS GETAWAY MCKEE FOODS GETAWAY
Little Debbie Turns 50! Enter the The Great American Getaway for a chance to win one of 50 getaway packages - http://www.littledebbie.com. (PRNewsFoto/McKee Foods)[AB]
COLLEGEDALE, TN UNITED STATES
01/18/2010

COLLEGEDALE, Tenn., Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The little girl on the box of snacks has grown up. This year marks the 50th anniversary of McKee Foods' Little Debbie brand—America's No. 1 selling snack cake. Believing it's better to give than to receive, to celebrate this Golden Anniversary, Little Debbie is giving away 50 vacation packages as part of The Great American Getaway.

Each vacation package includes roundtrip airfare for two, anywhere AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AAI) flies in the continental U.S., two nights in a Holiday Inn, a rental car for two days and a $200 cash card.

More than 150 billion Little Debbie snacks have been sold since the brand was introduced in 1960. If you placed those all those snacks end-to-end, they would circle the Earth more than 380 times. That would cover enough miles to travel to the moon and back close to 20 times!

Little Debbie, whose picture is often featured on products, was a real little girl and the granddaughter of O.D. and Ruth McKee, the founders of McKee Foods, a family bakery. Little Debbie, now Debbie McKee-Fowler, is an executive with McKee Foods.

The Little Debbie brand is quite popular in social media, with more than 510,000 Facebook fans and more than 4,500 followers on Twitter.

About the Little Debbie Brand

2010 marks the 50th anniversary of McKee Foods' Little Debbie brand—America's No. 1 selling snack cake. More than 150 billion Little Debbie snack cakes have been sold since 1960 in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and on U.S. military bases worldwide.

Little Debbie, whose picture is often featured on products, was a real little girl and the granddaughter of O.D. and Ruth McKee, the founders of McKee Foods, a family bakery. Little Debbie, now Debbie McKee-Fowler, is an executive with McKee Foods.

Every week Little Debbie baked goods are delivered from our bakeries to your communities – that's why they're so fresh. Local independent distributors, who are members of your communities, ensure that the freshest products are available in your stores. In fact, you will find our quality pledge and our guaranteed fresh date on every package.

We're not just quick when it comes to getting the freshest products to you - Little Debbie also likes to go fast on NASCAR tracks! The Little Debbie brand is a primary sponsor of NASCAR driver Marcos Ambrose's Sprint Cup Series car. For more information, and to enter The Little Debbie 50th Anniversary Great American Getaway sweepstakes, visit littledebbie.com, facebook.com/littledebbie or twitter.com/littledebbie.

McKee Foods, a family bakery with annual sales of more than $1 billion, is a privately held company based in Collegedale, Tenn. The McKee story began during the height of the Great Depression when founder O.D. McKee began selling 5–cent snack cakes from the back of his car. Soon after, he and his wife, Ruth, bought a small, failing bakery, using the family car as collateral. Today, the company employs more than 6,000 people in Collegedale, Tenn.; Gentry, Ark.; and Stuarts Draft, Va. It creates and bakes Little Debbie Snacks, Sunbelt Snacks & Cereals, Heartland and Fieldstone Bakery food products. Visit mckeefoods.com for more information.